February 9, 2009 in News

Author: Mindy FavreauPublication: MaineBiz

It’s going to get worse before it gets better. That phrase wasn’t what attendees wanted to hear, but that was the take-away message at the Maine Real Estate and Development Association’s 2009 Annual Real Estate Forecast Conference, held Jan. 29 at the Holiday Inn by the Bay in Portland. Presenters from all of Maine’s real estate sectors — office, industrial, residential and hospitality — provided, with varying degrees of grimness, a 2008 year-in-review and predicted an even tougher year in 2009. Maine’s retail market was no exception. The state, like the nation, is suffering from what industry experts are calling the market ’s worst contraction in 35 years, as national retailers like Circuit City and Linens ‘n Things go out of business. The sour market has also put the brakes on retail development in the state, including the planned $8 million expansion of the Maine Mall, which owners General Growth Properties recently decided to postpone indefinitely becaus e of the weak economy — the second planned expansion the Chicago firm has scrapped in Maine since 2008. (Continued on PDF)